BALI 13th July 2007, Friday (Day One)

So yesterday Areef and I went to Atria to get our money changed. Some were changed into USD and the rest we changed into Indonesia Rupiah. Mmmm crisp new notes. Instant millionaire hehe.

By 1230 we were outta the house and leaving for KL Sentral. The plan is to take the feeder bus from Sentral to LCCT, it's only RM9.90 I heard. Seeing how we're leaving for Bali and all, I wore my mini skirt and tank top and in the LRT suffered dagger looks from the aunties and ... well aunties. Lupa la plak arini hari Jumaat kan. Arghhh I'm sorry makciks :p

1640 hrs, we took off. Areef was so excited in the flight hehe.

Told ya.

The flight took 3 hours, by the 2nd hour we were getting all fidgety and nauseous. I started walking over to where Bina and Rustam were seated (cuz we got separated by the throng of passengers, this flight was full to the brim) and started talking about where we should go and what we should go and all. I mentioned a few places and man! I got real excited about it la plakkk heeee

It was already 1935 hrs (what's with the army lingo right? :p) when we touched down at Ngurah Rai Airport. I AM OFFICIALLY IN BALI muahahahah sonot sial. I think by the time we actually left the plane and at the arrivals pon we're like kids in a candy store looking here and there and making remarks about this and that and "gile ah" or "sial laaa" at anything. Ekekeeke. There was a counter with all the brochures in it; travel brochures, tour brochures, spa brochures that we decided to take them ALL, thus making us late at the immigration counter. But there were no maps though, and we just thought we'd take them from the hotel reception. The boys looked somewhat dazed, they were walking slowly towards us girls while looking around. I felt very hyperactive all in a sudden. I wanna go fast so that I can see Bali fast. I know. I can be anal sometimes.

Got our luggage, went out into the open air and as per any airports, there were many touts waiting for us. Bina who made a friend with an Air Asia staff in the bus told us we gotta go look for "Grace" at the AirAsia counter, to get a taxi with a good rate yg bukan mencekik darah pelancong-pelancong seperti kami. But she was not around, so instead we got our return itinerary, Rustam flirted a bit with the counter girl and we simply took the standard taxi to our hotel. Rp50,000 to Legian, which is standard (gotta remember this when we return to Bali hehe)

Arrived at the hotel, saw some renovation being done, but thankfully they were only redoing the restaurant area. The rooms are untouched yay. Since I was the one who made the reservation and all, I dealt with the reception counter guy, but we've only just arrived and still not really understanding Balinese-speaking English. Pretty weird, with dodgy accent. Or maybe aku kot yg blur tak paham, sbb when the guy told us he's putting us in a family suite instead of a standard room with extra bed, I kept asking about the free deluxe room for one night that they promised in the email. But all I keep getting were 'family suite' 'family suite'. Dah sampai bilik baru aku tau. We got the family suite for the whole duration of our stay, slightly expensive than our budget, but man it was so worth it.

The living room, with cable TV (cannot be seen in the picture)

Downstairs - master bedroom with attached bathroom.

Upstairs, where Bina and Rustam is to share a room. Luckily both of them have no problem with it hehe. Such angels these two. That's Arep raping Bina's bed.

Can see the pool from here.

"Kami suka Adika Sari Bungalow! Time kasih Yanz for the awesome recommendation"

We were so ecstatic upon seeing the room, I think the doormen think we're slightly jakun haha. After the jakunness wore off, we quickly took some well-needed shower and headed out to the streets for makan time.

Streets are full of shops, here and there, across and opposite, and there are lined with hotels and resorts, much like ours. I was trying to absorb Bali in, the sounds of it, the smell of it, the sights of it. Anyway it was nighttime so there wasn't much to see, but it's nice venturing about like that. Legian is like 10 minutes away from Kuta, and we're eager to see Kuta, and I was so ready to spend some of my rupiahs at the many shops there, but we were famished so we walked and walked and when we see a good place, we looked inside, peered the outside and asked whether they have pork or not hee hee. So good kids la. We stopped in front of this quiant small cafe called Bamboo Corner and decided this could be it.

Arep said when he bought this Hawaii-inspired shirt in 2002 he'd been hoping to wear it in Bali and I guess he couldn't wait any longer hahah

We took some time here in the cafe, talking and discussing again how to deal with another 4 days here. Since tomorrow there is a surfing competition that Areef really really wanted to see, we concluded that we'd include that in the list. Asked the nice waiter whose name is Eddy about the surfing competition. He then looked for a surfing magazine and got the details from it. It's to be at Bingin Beach in Uluwatu. In the end he gave the magazine to us kehkehkeh so nice.

We noticed a few things on our first night here. The people; be it foreigners, tourists and the locals, they are so friendly and some of them chatty. When we walked into Bamboo Corner a guy having a drink just turned around and simply talked to us. We were in good mood too seeing how easily people here make friends/peace and we embraced this new culture. Kat KL ada ke org tiba2 tegur ko in random pastuh asked "how are you and how are you enjoying the place?" Already I like it here.

Next we noticed the ubiquituous beer in Bali called "Bintang". They're everywhere, practically. In restaurants, billboards, shop signs, t-shirts. Bina didn't wait a second before she ordered her "Binteng" as was pronounced by the foreigners. She liked it. Said it tasted like Corona heheh.

After makan we walked around further up and around until we decided to go back to the hotel and retire for the night. Tomorrow would be an adventure yeahaaa!